Filed under: Retro Mac, Blast From the Past, Found Footage
Found Footage: A working NeXT Cube
Al Diblasi over at Alfred.TV keeps coming up with fun videos with old Apple or related devices as the centerpiece. In this latest 53-minute masterpiece on YouTube (below), Al boots up a 1991 68040-based NeXT Cube, and then shows off some of the built-in applications, an original brochure for the NeXT, a cool NeXT black turtleneck (Steve Jobs' influence, obviously), and a couple of versions of the NeXTstep OS and development environment.For those of you who are new to the Mac world, NeXT was the company Steve Jobs founded after being kicked out of Apple. Originally, they produced both hardware, of which this NeXT Cube is a prime example, and software. NeXT was purchased by Apple in 1997, and the NeXTstep environment evolved into what we now know as Mac OS X and the Cocoa development suite. A NeXT computer used by Tim Berners-Lee was the world's first Web server.
Be sure to watch or at least skim through to the end of the video, where Al finds a couple more Apple gems in his brother's basement. You can follow Al's trips through retro computing on Twitter.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Bobby195 said 7:24AM on 12-01-2008
If you're a NeXT fan you should check out this other YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWgTL9p4qZw
It's a great 4 part series titled NeXT: The Forgotten Future.
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south said 8:46AM on 12-01-2008
Awesome for 1990. Jobs has always been years ahead of his time.
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MikeN said 9:34AM on 12-01-2008
Can't stand this guy, all his vids drag on so much... I have not turned it on in 9 years my butt.. your not gonna record a video with out knowing if it boots..
But I have to hand it to him , he made me smile with his Motoroler !
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south said 5:35PM on 12-01-2008
why not? after all, it's just him sitting in his room, it's not like he's doing it on live TV or anything.
Ronny said 9:55AM on 12-01-2008
awesome.....
similar -
Free iPod Song Downloads - Where To Download iPod Songs? -
http://www.techreviews4u.com/?p=1682
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Ken 1.0 said 10:50AM on 12-01-2008
Here is a great Steve Jobs demo of NextStep 3. It is just unbelievable all the technology they had working...Video, graphics, next generation memory management. I think the machines were pretty expensive so we couldn't actually get this at home in 1991 unless you worked for Next or were Steve Jobs or Tim Berners-Lee*. Here is the demo and I recommend watching the entire thing because it will boggle the mind about how close this is to our current OS X.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j02b8Fuz73A
Other Links of Interest:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeXT
*first ever web server used by Tim Berners-Lee was a NextStep Cube
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BeyondtheTech said 11:43AM on 12-01-2008
Motoroler? :)
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Paul said 1:51PM on 12-01-2008
What is a moto roller chip.
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Eric said 5:17PM on 12-01-2008
I have to say, I recognise several things from OS 9...
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daniel said 3:41AM on 12-02-2008
a next computer is used in Madonna's "Rain" video...
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dogten said 7:44AM on 12-02-2008
It resembles OSX because it is the basis of OSX. I set up the first NeXT lab at Texas A & M in 1991. I think my favorite part of it was the portable profiles. When you shut down a session you took your existence with you on portable personal media.
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Michael Van Houten said 3:40PM on 12-03-2008
Wow...amazing. "Pages"...the "Dock". I guess Apple really did become NeXT.
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carlo said 9:08PM on 12-03-2008
I thought he presented very well, great to finally see a video of a NeXT cube.
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